Hyundai i30 Reinvented with Fall to Earth

Hyundai Australia has launched “Fall”, a commercial at the heart of their Hyundai i30 Reinvented campaign. The Hyundai i30 Reinvented campaign asks the question, “Where do you go once you’ve reached the top?” The action-packed film follows the previous Hyundai model plunging to earth from the edge of space, hitting the earth with an impressive explosion. The new model emerges in a cloud of dust. “What do you do after you’ve won Australia’s Best Cars Award six times? You start again.” Drawing on real footage captured on location by a skydiving team, the dramatic imagery required extensive previsualisation from boutique design and VFX house, Fin. The Innocean i30 Reinvented campaign is running on online, TV, cinema, digital, print, and outdoor media channels.

Visual Effects

Gripping shots of the falling car were achieved through a combination of full CGI, rendered with Redshift in Maya, and shots of a real i30 suspended by a crane. The car was then rotoscoped and dropped into one of the falling skydiving plates, seamlessly marrying the two elements together.

“Dan [Askill] wanted to film as many in-camera moments as possible,” comments VFX Supervisor at Fin, Justin Bromley. “We were able to advise fully on the overall approach regarding the blend of VFX and practical effects thanks to our early involvement in the creative process. While a last-minute change in location from Broken Hill, New South Wales, to Flinders Ranges, South Australia, meant that the scenery matched very closely to the director’s vision set out in pre-viz – vast open outback desert and clear blue skies – perhaps the skies were almost too clear as we created a huge amount of CGI clouds for the car to actually fall through. I’ve worked with Dan before, but not on something as complex and FX-heavy as this spot. His collaborative attitude and openness to our creative input really allowed us to take the creative ball and run with it, which made for a fantastic and rewarding experience. It’s always great when the initial vision in your head matches the final images that go to air!”

The stunning moment of impact was powered by explosives and tennis balls filled with dirt and captured high-speed in 1000-frames-per-second; the in-camera shots were then tuned extensively in compositing. Rather than grading footage in one big session, Fin opted to grade in Flame with the option of being able to constantly adjust the look in line with the evolution of the creative. Initial colour tests were carried out with Askill as a conceptual reference, then applied to every shot as the final composites were completed, resulting in a beautiful overall finish.

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